Page 75 of Cry for Help

Beezlebub glanced at Caim expectantly as he relayed the message.

“Gluttony will no longer be present in any Red Cities in the Human Realities.” Beezlebub tipped his head. “Those of my sin do not have the control needed to live in this dimension.”

I nodded again. That was acceptable.

“The Sixth Circle owes you a boon.” Beezlebub grabbed one of the burgers from his pile as he stood up. “Think about what you want.”

The king of Gluttony folded out of existence as he took a bite of the cheeseburger, dissolving into thin air.

The pile of fast food dissolved with him.

Asmodeus pouted, sitting back in her chair. “He’s sobusynow.” She sighed. “He never has time to play with me anymore.”

The shadow in the corner met my eyes. I recognized her.

Death.

Her magic felt like mine but a hundred times more powerful.

Who wasthat?

Before I could speak, Death evaporated as if she was never there.

Though I probably could have walked into any building in the Red City and claimed it like a dictator, the single story in the Human District felt like home.

At the end of the day, I wanted nothing more than to kick my feet up and eat nachos with Malphas. Or watch Caim cheat at Monopoly. Or listen to Murmur gripe about factual inaccuracies in the bible. Or watch Stolas adjust his telescope.

After the Behemoth had been banished from the city, we’d had a week of quiet existence as the dust settled, and it had been perfect.

But none of us had addressed the elephant in the room.

The Claiming.

I could feel them in my chest, like a second heartbeat. Sometimes, I would catch a stray thought. Tied to me withgolden threads, each of their souls felt very different, but my magic had snatched them up and braided us together, tying my demons to the city and me.

We had all come home from the summit in the ancient SUV, but my demons had disappeared the moment we’d gotten out of the car.

At first, I thought they needed peace and quiet after the chaos at the hotel, but after an hour, the silence becamesuspicious.

Malphas wasn’t in the kitchen, where he cooked to relax when stressed.

Murmur wasn’t in front of QVC buying a strange mop variant that nobody needed.

Stolas wasn’t in his study.

That left Caim and his den of inequity.

I hadn’t been in Caim’s room since my misguided cleaning spree.

But as I searched the house, and didn’t find a single demon, only one room was left.

I made sure to knock, not knowing what kind of debauchery I would walk into.

Caim called out, inviting me in. I couldn’t get a read on his voice to know if he was tied to the bed or not.

I pushed open the door into a sea of balloons covering every inch of the floor.

I frowned in confusion. “Is this some kind of fetish thing?”

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